Friction-gearing for motor-vehicles



H. E. STUNEBRAKER.

FRICTION GEARINGFOR MOIOR VEHICLES.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 29. 1918.

1,3283%6, Patented Jan. 20, 1920.

"ti i s. I. 4.. LJL Judie FRICTION-GEARING- FOR llIOTGR-VEHICLES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed November 23. 1918. Serial No. 284.619.

To (ZZZ 10720121 it may concern:

lle it known that l. Hinoin) Sroxnumnicu, a eitizen oi the llnited States o't America. residing in horoug'h o'l lhrooklyn. county of Kings. eity and State of New York. have invented eertain new and useful Improvements in l rietion-Gearing for Motor-Vehicles. of which the following a speeifi ation.

This invention relates to a t'rietiou gearing t'or motor vehicles and it has for its particular purpose to provide a practical and (woimmieal friction drive hetween the power t'ansmission shaft and the rear axle or other driven element of a vehiele.

The purpose isto eliminate toothed gear- .ing' as far as possible. therehy lessening the manufacturing cost and redueing the noise incidental to the operation of the gears.

The particular object of the improvement is to afford an arrangement whereby a trietion drive for a vehicle ean be made reasonably small in size, so as to bring it within praetieal requirements. and at the same time obtain the necessary amount of pressure between the members of the trietion pair.

As the power to be transmitted. and the tendency to slippage between the members of the friction pair. varies with ehan ges in speed of the vehicle, a further ohjeet ot the invention is to automatically vary the pres sure between the members of the trietion pair so that the greatest pressure is exerted to hold them together when the vehicle is not in motion. and the amount of pressure exerted decreases as the speed ot' the vehicle, is increased.

In general. the. invention consists in ntilizing the weight of the chassis and body of a vehicle to exert the required pressure be tween the t'rietion members. This can he aceomplishedhy arrz-ingging the rear axle. or the driven meu'iher of the friction pair. so that it is movable. bodily. for instance. torwardly. with reterenee to the vehicle ehas is. sueh forward inoreinent heina' elteeted l the downwardly acting weight of the chassis and the parts which it carries. As the vehicle, increases in speed. the downwardly acting ell'eet ot' the weight of the eaas creases hy reason of its Forward movement, and thus the trietion memhers 1 held together with less pressure. hut sameieir transmit the necessary power. A sudden increase in the speed will produce a more less corresponding decrease of pres.

is do between the t'rietion lllOlHlltl'S so that the conditions under whieh the powe transmitted are varied to aeeonl properly with the speed of the vehicle. A (10 There are. perhaps. numherless ways in whieh the fundamental idea of the inrentii'm ean he carried out. and tor purposes of illustration. three possible forms are here shown, the drawings being largely dizngrammatic and omitting. in large part. the usual and conventional detail parts necessary to properly mounting the movable shafts and hillllllar parts. all of which is well w thin he practices at good automohile meehauies and is unneeessary to a diselosure 0." this invention.

Figure l is a longitudinal. re"- sectional \lQW of an automohile and rear axle. showin; tie application of one torm oi' the lliitlltlOii. and with the forward part of the ehassis broken away:

Fig. 2 is a transverse. Yertieal. sectional view of a chassis and rear axle. illustrating a modified arrangement;

Fig. 3 is i plan view of the parts shown in Fig. :2. and v Fig. lis a plan view of a further modifiration.

Referringmore particularly to designates the ole A the The springs B are mounted ape housings (1. which ineind soeke portions that are in. tieal plane. as shown in Fi ways of the boxes (I ooipi D whieh are suitably mounard u axle. The weight of '1. boxes downwardly. and a; normal upward movement with reference to the hloeke; f3, by prm'iding" the boxes with their lower ends, and loeatin 2.

tween said caps and ill. i a oloms a 1:3. i.=.J2l.t-,G.:l cl: ied ariangeniein; socket portions in moved fomvartliy witl the latte i ICES Cit Cir

G, and the latter is driven by engagement with a friction driving member or pinion G which is mounted upon the transmission shaft H. the latter extending to the usual universal housing ll and operated by the motion of engine S. The front edge of the gear G engages the rear face of the gear (l, as shown in Fig. 1, the Gr being forced with suliicicnt pressure against the gear G by the action of the parts already described. To hold the friction members to get. or, it is necessary to retain the pinion G against forward movement, and to this end the latter is held by a support I, which is rigidly attached to the chassis and retained b suitable bracing memhess I. It is necessary to provide for a limited amount of relative vertical motion between the pinion G and the support I, owing to the up and down movements of the chassis, andto accomplish this the pinion G is mounted upon a base 2 the front face of which is curved substantially in the arc of acircle about which the chassis would move with refer ence to the pinion G. The support I is correspondingly curved, and is cut away at I to permit said relative movement. Suitable hall or roller bearings G may be arranged between the support I and the base G? of.

pinion G, to permit the relative movement ust referred to.

The friction gear G or drlvlng member,

may be keyed upon the transmission shaft l-l, to permit slight longitudinal 'niotion thereon, and the shaft H may extend beyond the gear G and have its rear end mounted in a suitable hearing supported by the rear axle.

eferring' now to Figs. 2 and 3, there is here illustrated a modification intended to permit of adapting friction driving means to both ends of the rear axle and thus eliminating; any differential mechanism, such as is now conunonly used. in this" form, the transmission shaft 5 carries a friction drivgauion J at rear end, and its edge upon one side, the inner face of a 5" K, and on the other side a slidable fri tion idler l1, s h in turn en- ;ragres the inner face of a fru tion gear la. (the gears l and L are mounted respectively on the two ends of the axle, for driv lug the rear wheels independenl and it is the fri ion f i; run?. 1-. ug gear 5*. n order to obtain the necessary pressure for transmitting power. To accomplish this, the gears K and L are engaged by followers l /lfslirh able upon the axle. Each follower lid carrics a pivoted actuating" lever M. the outer cud ofwhich is inclined as at ill and ening-es a correspondnurly inclined surface hi t i a? llHulIlecC. upon tie mile. he 0.111s s ii is mounted upon the actuating levers hi, through the intermediate spr Jigs N, which lessees are of usual. construction, and are attached fixedly to the levers M. The weight of the chassis forces the outer ends of the levers M downwardly, and this in turn, by reason of the inclined face M and actuates the followers M inwardly, toward each other and toward the friction driving member J Fig. 4 illustrates another form of mechanism for accomplishing the same purpose as that just described. In this case, however, it is intended that the rear axle shall have a forward movement bodilynwith reference to the chassis, as in Fig. 1, instead of arranging it as inhigs. 2 and 3, where no such forward movement is required. In general, the structure of Fig. 1 may be followed, and the only difference lies in the arrangement of gearing, in order to eliminate the dinerential gearin Odesignates the transmission shaft and O is the friction driving gear which engages the friction gear P fixed on the jack-shaft P. Thejacli-shaft also can ries friction gears P which engage friction driven gears P mounted respectively upon the opposite ends of the rear axle. With this form of apparatus, it will be understood that the jack-shaft P will be mounted and slidable bodily in suitable bearings supported by the rear axle and designated generally at P", so that the forward actuation of the rear axle, due to the downwardly acting weight of the chassis, will force the gears P tightly against gears P and also the gear P tightly against gear t). l he gear (3" will be held against forward movement similarly as in Fig. 1, or by other suitable convenient means, and the jack-shaft, with the e'ears which it carries, will be freely movable bodily, and held with the proper degree of pressure by the action of the rear axle already described.

The term vehicle as used throughout the specification and claims is intended to refer to bicycles and motor-cycles, as Well as any and all types of automobiles and motordriven tractors and trucks, or Wherever a friction pair can be employed between the driving and driven elements of a. traveling" carriage. The particular forms of the apparatus that are here disclosed are intended merely to illustrate adaptations of the idea, and the invention is to be in no way limited to such structures. This application is intended to cover any modifications, chan es, or othe applications of the improvem n which may come within the purposes and principles described, and the scope of the following claims.

ll hat l claim is 1. In a vehicle, the combination with fric tionallv engaging driving and driven memww D 6 and hem in Welght of arm, at :1 motor an 112w one nuyvable 'mbers Ward the oihe h by the them 1th,

a 111i ii 11 f1 of mg membel and and In a mo memb 11',

md W1 nherewit motor. 8. non with associated member,

V m P ith fricad driven memht of a g b. 116: fz'lcthe preseca'euses as friction mm ogethel'.

iest pressure lonloss, and 121 (1-21 hlcle 1s tmv v the Weig for ncilmtzn .vhel'a'o other (i com in members 111 "fi'lctmnai 1 other, of grzwlty conforms sail ivcn membels i i with each other t of sand it members t 1 combix nmnbers in ombination a a -uv combinutio" 01 lVlD due when 10 1 is the c maxi wit- 

